> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.yield.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Meta Vaults
> A Meta Vault is a vault of vaults. It spreads your customers' deposits across up to 10 DeFi strategies you approve, in one ERC-4626 vault with your fees, and shows one balance and one blended APY after fees.
**New launch.** Meta Vaults are live as of October 15, 2026. To launch one in your app, request it in the [dashboard](https://dashboard.yield.xyz).
A Meta Vault is a vault of vaults, and it lets you launch a branded Earn product on one asset. Your customer deposits once, holds one balance and sees one blended APY after your fees. Behind it, one ERC-4626 vault holds the strategies you selected, at the weights you set, and prices everything from one share price. The customer holds vault shares in their own wallet, so rebalancing and compounding don't require them to sign anything, and they never pick a protocol or claim a reward.
The vault holds the strategies you decide on and nothing else. You can add, remove or replace strategies as your view changes, and your customer's balance and rate keep the same shape.
## What you control, what Yield.xyz runs, what the contracts enforce
| Your team controls | Yield.xyz provides | The contracts enforce |
| - | - | - |
| Which strategies are whitelisted and at what weights. Fee levels and the fee recipient. Who holds which permission, through your own multisig. Whether rebalances run automatically or wait for your approval | Strategy monitoring (yield, capacity, risk signals), allocation computation, prepared transactions for your signers, reward compounding, the Earn API, widget and reporting | Custody of deposits, the ERC-4626 share price, fee issuance, and the rule that funds move only between the vault and its whitelisted strategies, by roles that cannot escalate themselves |
## Eligible strategies
A Meta Vault runs on one chain and takes one deposit asset, such as USDC on Base. It can hold up to 10 strategies, plus an idle buffer kept in the vault for instant withdrawals.
* **ERC-4626 vaults** on that chain that accept the deposit asset, such as Morpho vaults or Spark Savings.
* **Supported lending markets**, such as Aave v3, through a Yield.xyz ERC-4626 wrapper so the vault sees the same interface for every strategy.
Each chain and asset is its own vault deployment. Funds move only between the vault and the strategies you whitelisted; your customer never interacts with a strategy directly.
## Two-layer system design
A Meta Vault is a two-layer system:
* **On-chain layer:** custody, accounting, fees and permissions, enforced by the vault contract.
* **Off-chain layer:** strategy monitoring for performance and risk signals, weight computation, and optional execution of allocation and protective moves.
This split keeps the contract small and auditable, while the optimization and risk-response logic can improve without a contract upgrade. See [How it works](/documentation/earn/oavs/meta-vaults/architecture) for each part in detail.
## Key security considerations
* **Accounting.** The vault uses standard ERC-4626 share accounting with one `totalAssets()` view over idle and every strategy, so every balance comes from one share price.
* **Funds stay inside the whitelist.** Capital can only move between the vault and its whitelisted strategies. No function sends the deposit asset or strategy shares anywhere else.
* **Emergency response.** The vault can be paused, and capital can be pulled back to idle while it is paused.
* **Slippage.** Every move into or out of a strategy carries a minimum amount out, so a bad price or thin liquidity makes the call revert instead of losing value.
* **Role separation.** Administration, capital moves, reward claims, pausing and holder approval are separate roles, so no single operator key controls configuration, execution and emergency controls together.
## How allocation runs
Target weights are your policy. The vault moves capital to match them through role-gated transactions, and you choose who computes the weights and who signs:
| Mode | How it works |
| - | - |
| Manual | You set fixed weights and change them when you decide. Every change is a multisig transaction |
| Optimizer proposes, you approve (recommended) | The optimizer computes new weights when drift passes a threshold and submits each rebalance to your multisig to sign |
| Automated | A limited operator wallet rebalances on its own, restricted on-chain to the whitelisted strategies. It cannot touch roles, fees or the strategy list |
| Curator | An external curator of your choice manages the weights, holding the same limited operator permissions |
Off-the-shelf optimizers are APY optimization (TVL-adjusted) and a max-APY baseline, or you can plug in your own algorithm. The same choice applies to reward compounding. See [Allocation & rebalancing](/documentation/earn/oavs/meta-vaults/vault-mechanics/allocation-weights-rebalancing).
## Fees
Set a deposit fee, a management fee and a performance fee. Each is realized by minting vault shares to your fee recipient, so nothing is withdrawn from a strategy to pay you. The rate your customer sees is net of fees, and every number is accounted for on-chain.
Worked example, for illustration. Gross vault yield is the blended return of the chosen strategies and will vary. The performance fee is charged on yield and the management fee on assets, both annualized.
| | Amount |
| - | - |
| Customer deposits | \$25,000,000 |
| Gross vault yield, 6.0% blended | \$1,500,000 |
| Performance fee, 15% of yield | \$225,000 |
| Management fee, 0.50% of assets | \$125,000 |
| **Your revenue, per year** | **\$350,000** |
| **Customer net yield** | **4.60%** |
The contract caps each fee: deposit at 5%, performance at 50% and management at 20% a year. See [Accounting & share price](/documentation/earn/oavs/meta-vaults/vault-mechanics/accounting-share-price) for how fees accrue, and [Monetization](/documentation/earn/monetization) for how vault fees fit with your other Earn fees.
## Setup
Setup is four choices, made when you request the vault:
Pick the asset and the chain, then whitelist the strategies and the idle buffer.
Fixed weights, an off-the-shelf optimizer, your own algorithm or a curator, and whether rebalances execute automatically within permissions or wait for your multisig.
Deposit, management and performance fees, and the address that receives the fee shares.
Your multisig as admin, an operator wallet limited to rebalancing and harvesting, and a monitoring wallet limited to pausing. See [Roles & signing](/documentation/earn/oavs/meta-vaults/vault-mechanics/roles-signing-models).
You request the vault in the [dashboard](https://dashboard.yield.xyz), and Yield.xyz deploys it and enables it for your project.
## Integrate through the Earn API
A live Meta Vault runs through the same Earn API, widget and SDK as any other yield:
1. **Find it.** The vault appears as a yield ID in `GET /v1/yields` for your project. Its rate is the blended APY of its strategies, net of your fees. See [Discover yields](/guides/earn/discover-yields).
2. **Enter.** An enter action builds the deposit transaction. The customer receives vault shares in their own wallet.
3. **Track.** Balances return the customer's position in the deposit asset, priced from the vault's share price.
4. **Exit.** An exit action builds the withdrawal. The vault pays from its idle buffer first, then from strategies in a set order.
A few behaviors to handle in your app:
* **Permissioned vaults.** A vault can be set so only approved addresses receive shares, for example customers who passed your KYC. A deposit to an address that is not approved fails. Withdrawals are never restricted.
* **Pause.** While a vault is paused, deposits and withdrawals are both unavailable. See [Security & monitoring](/documentation/earn/oavs/meta-vaults/security-monitoring).
* **Liquidity.** A withdrawal pays the full amount or fails; it never pays part. A withdrawal larger than the idle buffer depends on the strategies having that liquidity available.
## Security and audits
Risk monitoring with an automatic pause is optional on a Meta Vault and can be set up when you request the vault. It comes by default with [Sentinel Vaults](/documentation/earn/oavs/sentinel-vaults), the OAV built around protecting a deposit. See [Security & monitoring](/documentation/earn/oavs/meta-vaults/security-monitoring) for how it works.
The Meta Vault and Sentinel Vault contracts were audited by Zellic in September 2026, and earlier vault generations by Zellic and Spearbit/Cantina. Audit reports, the SOC 2 Type II report and security policies are on the [Trust Center](https://trust.yield.xyz). The Meta Vault design is the subject of a pending US patent application (19/676,363, filed May 2026).
## Next steps
The vault contract, the allocation service and reward compounding.
How one share price covers every strategy, and how fees accrue.
Who can do what, and who signs.
From a risk signal to a pause, an exit and a redeploy.
This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.